


my heart should be well-schooled

by nausicaa_of_phaeacia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Daisy in India, F/M, Gen, Registration Act, Season/Series 03, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6337591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nausicaa_of_phaeacia/pseuds/nausicaa_of_phaeacia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisy is hiding at a safehouse in Kalkota with Natasha until things get less dangerous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my heart should be well-schooled

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notcaycepollard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcaycepollard/gifts).



> I haven't watched 3x13 Parting Shot yet, so I'm sort of just ignoring the episode.  
> For notcaycepollard, just because I'm really grateful for her incredible fics.
> 
> As usual, I have no idea what I'm doing, I just needed Daisy to be in hiding, also Natasha.  
> Hope you like it! :)

It just takes so much time.  
Of course, she's glad to be safe here, and Natasha's been amazing. It's weird how she's heard so many things about her before that just didn't apply to her (kind of like people talk about May). To be honest, Daisy couldn't be more comfortable here. It's a really small rooftop apartment, pretty noisy and not the cleanest, but there's something to this place that makes her want to keep it. 

Maybe it's just Kolkata in general; everything is just so open and new and just sort of _adequate_ , and basically, she feels like hiding here forever. Also, Natasha has to be the most underestimated cook of the universe (probably even a better cook than Coulson, but it seems unwise to try and put that to a test).

Still, not being around her teammates makes her sad. She keeps wondering how they are faring, although she has no doubt that Coulson was just as diligent in finding safehouses (and helpers) for the rest of her team as he was for her. Joey's been around S.H.I.E.L.D. for quite a while, but even though Yo-Yo's obviously not inexperienced, she's just gotten to know S.H.I.E.L.D., doesn't have the tactical background they all can account for. 

The same goes for Coulson's team (or what's left of it, anyways) – it's been such a long time (okay, it's been a few weeks, but when you're trying not to exist, it's an eternity) and she keeps wishing for Mack to show up with a video game or maybe a DVD, or May to wake her up for training, Bobbi to knock on her door with two beers, Jemma to silently pass her a few healthy snacks while they're both trying to look very professional. 

Most of all though, she misses stumbling over Coulson's feet in the kitchen in the middle of the night or knocking at his office door after working hours, drawn there by the smooth jazz music. To be honest, she just wishes for him to show up with a plate of grilled cheese and sit on this ragged couch with her, eating. 

At least, this here gives her the time to learn Spanish properly; Natasha’s started to make fun of here going nowhere without her headphones on, listening to her textbook audio tracks (even in the bathroom). Admittedly, she’s gotten pretty good; Nat switched on some telenovela for her the other night, to test her, and to be honest, she was totally able to follow the plot. Sure, there are still like fourteen units to go, but this doesn’t look like it’s going to be over soon (she’s trying to follow the news, but with nothing but local TV on her hands, it’s not exactly easy; Nat won’t let her use her laptop or smartphone).

It’s such a beautiful place, and Daisy can’t deny she’s learned a lot about herself and adjusted her view of the world a little – also, she’s made an awesome friend (which, come on, how many people can _really_ say that talking about Natasha?). Still – it doesn’t get easier, not even a little bit. The days might be colourful and different, but the nights all are the same. She’s become an expert at detecting patterns in the unevenly painted ceiling, in the grain of the wooden cupboard, in the waves of the checkered curtain.

It’s during nights like this that she would normally get up and do something useful with her time: hack, mostly. Over here, it’s reading (which is really nice, but sometimes, you just don’t have the energy to follow a plot), most of the time, but Daisy’s just finished _Wide Sargasso Sea_ , and that’s something you don’t supersede with the next book, it’s something that needs time.

And okay, maybe that’s also what she needs.  
She tries to make the best of it, and it’s not like she’s suffering. But lately, she keeps catching herself hearing Coulson’s voice when reading short texts (instructions, mostly), and it makes her notice so many other little things that she misses about him. One weekend, she wanders through half of Kalkota to collect a few jazz records she half-remembers from Coulson’s office. Natasha even catches her trying to make some kind of extraordinary grilled cheese when she returns one afternoon. Daisy would have thought it would make her feel more at home, miss him less, but in reality, it just makes everything worse, makes her tell herself to breathe.

If Natasha notices, she doesn’t let it show; they exchange hacking stories, discuss weird hiding places, or managing to make it through a week in the desert with nothing on your hands but a pair of schoolkid scissors, things like that. Not to forget the occasional playful Russian lesson (while cooking, mostly, so that Daisy can tell _sáftrak_ from _úshin_ and _sól’_ from _sákhar_ ) and the sparring, interrupted by mutually showing off mad skills at draughts (and the telenovelas on the ragged couch, that’s become a habit).

After what feels like a decade and when it’s not that life-threatening to be an “alien” anymore, Natasha (or, to be precise, _Tatiana Sokolova_ ) takes her to a super secret conference just outside of Jaipur where Daisy’s been asked to speak as a sort of inofficial advocate for Inhumans. To be honest, she isn’t exactly prepared, but most of what she’s going to say is going to depend on the participants’ questions (most of them are higher-level politicians) – and she doesn’t think she should be needing a speech when this is about _her_ , when it’s about something that’s imminently a part of her life.

What she doesn’t reckon with is seeing Coulson there, and he doesn’t look like he’s expected her, either. They seem to discover each other in the same moment, Daisy having just walked over to the lectern and adjusted her microphone: Coulson is seated at the far end of the U-shaped conference table, behind a small stack of paper, in the middle of cleaning his glasses. He’s obviously trying to hide his surprise, fiddling with a pen, adjusting his revers, but he can’t look away. At first, she thinks it might be the stunning scarf she’s sort of just thrown over her shoulders (the air conditioning in here is pretty harsh), but since she’s still looking at him herself, it’s probably not just that.

It takes her another second to start speaking; she tries to look at everyone attending at least once as she’s explaining her stance on the Registration Act and its possible revision in September. Everyone, except for Coulson, is taking notes, and she suddenly becomes very much aware of the fact that her eyes keep returning to him.

To her surprise, it’s an incredible relief to her to see the conference end on decidedly hopeful and motivated terms. She wouldn’t have expected these politicians to show any sign of willingness to cooperate, and they did, at least 73% of them, and in the light of recent policital events and tendencies, that’s quite something (things are looking up, Daisy knows it; after all, nobody has tried to take her into custody yet).

She’s still startled when a hand suddenly lands on her shoulder as she’s standing in line at the buffet (at least that’s what she thinks she’s doing, but there are too many people to be able to tell). Worried for a moment, she turns around, but it’s Coulson, and he’s smiling at her (his eyes, too, from behind those dorky glasses she would never have thought he’d use when not undercover). Actually, she sort of just really wants to wrap her arms around him and hug him for about fifteen minutes, because she can already feel herself getting emotional; it’s been a long time, after all.

He seems to sense her hesitation and she’s afraid he’s going to back away from her a little, but that’s when he mutters a small “Hello” and _hugs hugs hugs_ her tight; not for too long, okay, there are people around, but _long enough_ , and when she just beams at him as he’s pulling back, his hand stays on her arm for just that tiny moment longer than she could have anticipated. As she lightly touches his elbow, she finally finds her voice.  
“Hey.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Tell me what you think! :)
> 
> Title's from Chet Baker's 'I Fall in Love Too Easily'.
> 
> _I fall in love too easily_   
>  _I fall in love too fast_   
>  _I fall in love too terribly hard_   
>  _For love to ever last._
> 
> _My heart should be well-schooled_   
>  _'Cause I've been fooled in the past_   
>  _But still I fall in love so easily_   
>  _I fall in love too fast._


End file.
